The U.S. Men’s Soccer Summer Is Turning into a Nightmare
The U.S. men’s national team’s match against Panama was only 18 minutes old when forward Tim Weah, upset with an opposing defender, decided to smack him in the back of the head.
Caught in the act by the replay cameras, Weah was soon sent off, leaving his 10 teammates to toil on short-handed. It was a brief burst of frustration that could change the entire trajectory of the U.S. squad—not only at the current Copa America on home soil, but also in the buildup to the 2026 World Cup that the Americans will co-host with Canada and Mexico.
“It’s a lapse of judgment,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said. “It’s just one simple second, you respond to something.”
That simple second paved the way for a 2-1 U.S. defeat and left the team sitting on just three points after two matches of this Copa America group stage. In order to progress to the knockout rounds now, it most likely needs to beat Uruguay on Monday and hope that Panama doesn’t stomp Bolivia, the worst team in the group.
The troubling thing for the U.S. is that while the country has a growing number of players talented enough to play in Europe’s top leagues, the past few weeks alone have produced two of the worst defeats since the Americans failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup with a nightmarish loss to Trinidad and Tobago. First, in a tuneup for the Copa, they were clobbered by Colombia 5-1. Then they put their survival in this tournament in jeopardy by falling to Panama, a country ranked No. 43 in the world that they were expected to see off comfortably.
That’s why after the shocking turn of events, attention immediately turned to the future of one person: Berhalter.
Even before this recent stretch, Berhalter’s tenure wasn’t on solid ground. While he resuscitated the team following the embarrassment of being stuck at home in 2018, the performance at the Qatar World Cup, when the team exited in the round of 16 with a loss to the Netherlands, was good enough to ultimately keep the job—but not quite good enough to secure it. The process of his reappointment after Qatar was further upended when U.S. player Gio Reyna’s parents, upset over his playing time, brought to light a decades-old altercation between Berhalter and his now-wife in a bid to get him sacked.
The result is that coming into the Copa, Berhalter was hardly assured of holding on to the job through the World Cup two years from now. Exiting before the knockout rounds, despite being the highest ranked country in the group, could be the doomsday scenario.
The crazy part is that after years of intricate breakdowns of whether Berhalter’s tactics can take the Americans to the next level, his future may hinge on one rash decision by a 24-year-old. Weah’s red card completely warped their fortunes in the Copa, turning a high probability of a trip to the knockout stages into a dire moment.
“A moment of frustration led to an irreversible consequence, and for that, I am deeply sorry to my teammates, coaches, family and our fans,” Weah wrote on Instagram.
After he was sent off, there was a brief moment of hope when Folarin Balogun gave the U.S. a 1-0 lead. Balogun, a 22-year-old who came up through Arsenal’s youth academy, has been one of the Americans’ glimmers of hope with two goals in as many games, giving the country a potential long-term striker to partner up top with captain Christian Pulisic.
But Balogun’s goal was quickly erased by a Panama equalizer just four minutes later, leaving the Americans to scramble for a draw in a game in which they held just 26% of the possession. Then, as the game grew chippier, Panama took the lead for good in the 83rd minute.
The saving grace for the U.S. ahead of its third game is that Uruguay, which has won its first two matches by a combined score of 8-0, doesn’t necessarily need a victory and could rest some of its starters. But everyone around the U.S. camp knows that it never should have come to this. The Copa was supposed to be a launchpad, an opportunity for the team to test itself against world-class opposition.
Instead, this month has turned into an exercise in avoiding embarrassment.
“Pressure is part of what we sign up for,” Berhalter said. “That’s part of this job…If we put in the same type of effort in this game, in terms of the work effort and togetherness, we’ll have a shot to beat Uruguay.”
Write to Andrew Beaton at [email protected] and Joshua Robinson at [email protected]